Friday, May 24th 2013

Loni, the voice behind Ask Shopbop, just moved into a new house and is ready to start renovating. Based on the amazing styling of her former home (see it here.) we can’t wait to see what she does.

A few weeks ago, we moved into my new-old house. Built in 1930, this house on the hill seemed destined to be ours. With roughly 30 stairs up to the front door and a cavernous garage built into the hillside, it’s a bit specific. Turns out, my college art history professor lived there for 36 years. We’ve taken to calling her the steward of our already beloved Dutch Colonial. When we met our next-door neighbor, a retired mathematician, he said of the former owner, “She never let the house intimidate her…she just ignored it.” Suffice it to say, she kept the systems working, but never really gave the house any true TLC. Like an honest intellectual, she decorated her home with floor-to-ceiling stacks of books. The neighbor claims he didn’t even know what color her walls were. I can tell him now—after hours spent cleaning the basement—that they were called “oat straw,” an unsavory not white, not tan, not pink color. Between books and “oat straw,” I’d take books, but I have plans for a more minimal, wall-revealing décor! Over time, I plan to share the progress we make on this labor of love. Stay tuned for tales of our challenges and victories!